Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Christy Craft / For just over 100 years, student unions have served college campuses across the United States. These buildings have changed and progressed over time to offer services to fit the needs of students. Recently, the concept of community building has become increasingly more important to higher educational institutions. Student unions are at the very center of community building on college campuses. This report looks at one model of community building and offers design elements union administrators need to be aware of when designing student union spaces.

Master of Science / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Shannon Washburn / Each year higher education institutions seek to recruit and attract high school graduates to their institutions. Millions of high school seniors each year are in the midst of the college choice process, attempting to determine which institution is “right” for them. This study explored college choice factors important to high school seniors in the search phase of the college choice process. To carry out this study purposeful sampling was used to select 11 high school seniors participating in individually scheduled campus visits. An interview process was used to investigate what college choice factors were important to them when choosing a university/college. Student responses were ultimately categorized into six areas: interest in a specific major/program area, reputation, ideal distance from home, family interaction with institution, factors related to paying for college, and campus environment.

Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Doris Carroll / Social media is the use of online applications and websites to create and exchange user-generated content. These websites are becoming ever more popular with college aged students to connect with their peers, businesses, and areas of interest. These websites could be taken advantage of to provide new opportunities to engage students in campus life. This paper examines the concept of student engagement and the role of social media in engaging student with campus life. A brief overview of Facebook and Twitter, the two most popular social networks, is provided. This paper also reviews the limited body of research available on the impact of social media on student engagement. It is argued here that social media can be a positive influence on student engagement within the college campus and could lead to improvements in the way that higher education professional assist with student development. Due to the limited amount of academic research available, popular news sources as well as websites and blogs were examined to determine the most influential uses of social media, and this report makes recommendations for incorporating social media use into higher education. Social media allows higher education professionals to “meet students where they are” and provide for opportunities for engagement and student development. If the recommendations made in this report are implemented by student affairs professionals, they could be assessed for their impact on student engagement and development in the future.

Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs / Doris Carroll / Hall and Chandler argued that one of the deepest forms of satisfaction or psychological success can occur when the person experiences work as more than a job or career – when it is a calling (2005, p. 160). They defined calling as work that a person perceives as his purpose in life. Adams (2012) said “there has been a recent awareness of the need to find ways to incorporate meaning into people’s work (p. 66).” Steger defined meaning as “the extent to which people comprehend, make sense of, or see significance in their lives, accompanied by the degree to which they perceive themselves to have a purpose, mission, or over-arching aim in life” (Steger, 2009, p. 680). Historically, an individual received an external calling from God but today another type of calling is being discussed: that of an internal calling. The Student Volunteer Movement or SVM was the name of one of history’s most impactful Christian missionary movements to ever take place, and it originated in collegiate America (Ahrend, 2010). More missionaries were sent out in the first year of the Student Volunteer Movement than had been sent from the United States in the previous century. From 1890 to 1930 the SVM was comprised of 100,000 volunteers who committed to give their lives to the employment of Christian missions. Of those, 20,000 actually left America to live in other countries while 80,000 stayed behind in America. Those who stayed behind formed the Laymen's Missionary Movement to financially support the goers (Ahrend, 2010). During these forty years, this mobilization effort was able to recruit one out of every thirty-seven university students in the United States (Ahrend, 2010). Undoubtedly, there are important implications for understanding the Student Volunteer Movement if you are affiliated with a Christian campus ministry. However, if the Student Volunteer Movement were seen as only religious individuals, then one would have misunderstood the developmental excellence of the SVM. The lessons learned from the Student Volunteer Movement, transcend religious boundaries. Examining the Student Volunteer Movement helps student development educators create new ways to support students as they discover their calling. Additionally, it has implications for how faculty and professionals advise students who have calling. This paper provides an example of the relationship between student affairs professionals and spiritual development among students. This comprehensive analysis of the Student Volunteer Movement informs student affairs professionals how best to support a student’s holistic development.

Master of Science / Department of Counseling and Student Development / Christy Moran Craft / Graduate assistants in residence life face many different challenges that are unique to their positions, and their wellness is critical to ensuring their place as competent professionals ready to serve students on university campuses. For the continued success and relevance of graduate assistantship positions in housing departments, it is critical that an effort be made to understand these student employees’ experiences as they complete graduate study and are employed under various expectations that may be directly impactful to the manner in which they work with students. This report serves to understand the experiences of residence life graduate assistants to better prepare full-time professionals in supervising and supporting these individuals.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Environmental Design and Planning / Stephanie A. Rolley / Creativity is vital to the design professions although there is a not a common understanding among designers about the nature of creativity. Designers need a model of creativity that helps place the importance of creativity in the design process and informs educators about how to better enhance creativity in their students. Merrill’s Model of Creativity in Design (Merrill & Rolley 2012) was developed by the researcher and served as the framework for exploring the effect of an academic intervention on the creativity of college freshman design students in order to answer the question: Does participating in an academic intervention affect the creativity of first-year, three-dimensional design students, as measured by the Figural Torrance Test of Creative Thinking? A mixed methods approach allowed development of a rich field of data for analysis as well as a body of student work and experiences. Design students were taught creativity techniques in addition to completing short exercises during a one-hour weekly seminar class, Design Thinking and Creativity. These students were compared to a control group of students utilizing a modified Solomon four-group non-equivalent control group quasi-experimental research design, adapted from Campbell and Stanley (1966). A paired t-test compared post-test scores between the treatment group (n=70) and the control group (n= 18). Qualitative data was also collected including a demographic survey, a Creative Self-Assessment, and interviews. The treatment group, on average, (M=113.53, SE=1.82) scored significantly higher than the control group on the post-test administration of the FTTCT (M=104.78, SE=3.41), t(84)=-2.22, p<.05, r=.06). An analysis using Spearman’s Rho determined a significant correlation between individual participant’s scores on three assessments of individual student creativity, which focused on the individual’s creative cognitive abilities; however, there was no significant correlation with the final creativity project. These findings show that deliberate creativity education coupled with creativity exercises allowed students to slightly raise their creativity while the creativity of their peers dropped. Analysis of qualitative data revealed high student confidence and commonalities in defining creativity. This study demonstrates that an academic intervention can improve the creativity of beginning design students and provides a theoretical framework for future creativity research and teaching.

Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Kenneth Hughey / Students are entering institutions across the country unprepared to meet the demands of higher education. While Kansas is above the national average for students prepared for higher education, only twenty-nine percent of Kansas seniors are considered "prepared” for college in the four determined benchmark areas, compared to the twenty-five percent national average (ACT, 2012). With this statistic, ACT indicates that only one fourth of students complete high school requirements in such a way that leads to success post-graduation. Students are not ready for the expectations of higher education, and as a result this population is less likely to succeed. Further, development opportunities targeted at underprepared students are largely unsuccessful at reaching the population. This report looks at the unprepared student population, the role of higher education, and the projected future for underprepared students in higher education. In an effort to encourage holistic development and successful support initiatives, recommendations for higher education practices and research are discussed.

Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Fred Bradley / Outdoor orientation programs (OOPs) have the same goal as traditional first-year student orientation programs (e.g., First-Year Seminar), that is, helping facilitate the transition of first-year students to collegiate life. There are many challenges first-year students face while transitioning into college. Research shows that OOPs can increase retention rates of first-year students; help first-year students to grow personally, socially and spiritually; and increase friendship formation among this population (Davis-Berman & Berman, 1996; Devlin, 1996; Galloway, 2000). Today, there are approximately 164 higher education institutions in the United States that offer OOPs to their first-year students. Currently, Kansas State University has several programs that aid students in their transition to collegiate life. However, they do not currently have an OOP in place. A survey was conducted at Kansas State University to evaluate the level of interest in an OOP and/or an outdoor trips program. Survey results suggest that there are a significant number of current students on campus who would have participated in an OOP if one were offered when they first arrived. Recommendations for the development of an OOP at Kansas State University are made utilizing survey results and interviews with successful OOP program directors at several universities.

Master of Science / Department of Counseling & Student Development / Kenneth Hughey / The challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students on college and university campuses are many. For example, LGBT students face harassment and discrimination at significantly higher levels than their heterosexual peers, and are twice as likely to receive derogatory remarks (Rankin, Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer, 2010). As the visibility of LGBT college students and the adversity they face has increased, there is ever more pressure on college and universities to evaluate whether LGBT students’ needs are being met. A dependable method of determining this is to conduct an assessment of the campus climate for LGBT students. Campus climate can be consists of the mutually reinforcing relationship between the perceptions, attitudes, and expectations of both individuals and groups, as well as the actual patterns of interaction and behavior between individuals and groups (Cress, 2008). Thus, in order to assess a campus climate, one must determine the current perceptions, attitudes, and expectations that define the institution and its members. Campus climate has a significant impact upon students’ academic progress and achievement and their level of satisfaction with their university. Whether or not a student feels as though they matter on their campus is largely a result of the climate. Evaluations of campus climate for LGBT students allow administrations to uncover what inequalities may exist on their campus, which is the first step toward being able to correct them. There have been many methods of improving campus climate that have been effective at a variety of colleges and universities. Administrations that wish to provide LGBT students on their campus with a better experience should invest in as many of these practices as possible. The most important action in improving campus climate is to institute an LGBT resource center or office with a full-time staff member and significant office space. Other impactful strategies include establishing a Safe Zone or Allies program, encouraging LGBT students to form organizations for themselves and their allies, increasing the amount of interaction between LGBT students and faculty—especially LGBT faculty, and establishing a Queer Studies academic program.

Master of Science / Department of Special Education, Counseling, and Student Affairs / Carla Jones / Study abroad participation has grown throughout the years at a steady pace (Chow & Bhandari, 2011; Fischer, 2011; Rhodes, Biscarra, Loberg, & Roller, 2012). A length of stay can range from a few weeks to a year. A high majority of students who have experienced study abroad have changed in some way throughout their stay, but what about when they return to the United States? What other changes do students go through and experience when they come home? The change simply does not stop once a student comes home from studying abroad. This report discusses the various transitions students go through when they go abroad, but also what student affairs professionals can do to help students get through the process of change and acclimation back in the university. Conversations with students who have studied abroad and professionals in study abroad will be referred to throughout the paper. The students were chosen based on their experiences abroad and their willingness to participate. Personal experiences will also be utilized by the author to provide perspective of the experience of reentry to the readers. Research highlighted the benefits of going abroad are broad (Dwyer & Peters, 2004; Sutton & Rubin, 2010). However, the reentry phase back to the United States is an area yet to be thoroughly studied. Through a review of past literature and conversations with professionals and participants in study abroad, it is clear that a reentry model needs to be implemented so that students can be assisted in a more helpful manner. As part of this report, a reentry model will be discussed and will include specific suggestions to assist students with the reentry process.